In a labor dispute over salary, security guards at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Five are planning to go on strike beginning March 31 and continuing for ten days.
According to the Unite union, more than 1,400 of its members who are employed at Heathrow will walk out of their jobs during a time period that encompasses the Easter school vacation.
Employees at Terminal 5, which is utilized by British Airways, as well as those who inspect goods entering the airport will take part in the action, which will come to a conclusion on Easter Sunday.
According to Heathrow, backup plans will be implemented to ensure that the airport remains operational.
Heathrow issued a statement assuring travelers that the airport will remain “open and operating” despite “unnecessary threats of strike action by Unite.”
The corporation announced that it has recommended “a salary raise that is 10% higher than the rate of inflation.”
But, Unite maintains that the offer does not make up for the years of wage reductions and freezes.
Sharon Graham, the secretary general of the Unite union, claims that workers at Heathrow Airport are paid “poverty wages” while “the chief executive and senior management enjoy large salaries.”
She stated that members of Unite are “simply unable to make ends meet due to the poor earnings,” and that the reason for their strike is “need, not greed.”
The leader of Unite stated that the workers at the airport deserve a reasonable wage raise because they are the ones who are responsible for the airport’s success.
It comes after more than a thousand employees at the Passport Office indicated that they would go on strike for a period of five weeks over a disagreement regarding their jobs, salary, and working conditions.
During the dates of 3 April and 5 May, members of the Public and Commercial Services union who are employed in England, Scotland, and Wales will participate in a strike.
In the meanwhile, workers in Belfast are planning to go on strike beginning April 7 and continuing until May 5.
The union issued a warning that there would be delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the lead up to the summer and added that the strike action was being intended to cause widespread inconvenience.
According to Simon Calder, an expert on travel, the number of applications received by the Passport Office might reach 250,000 per week during peak times, which include the month of April. This indicates that more than one million applications might be submitted during the period when the strike is in effect.
The strike has raised concerns that some people’s passport applications would not be processed in time for them to be issued in time for their summer vacations.
The Home Office has expressed its displeasure with the decision made by PCS to go on strike and has added that the strike will not change its recommendations, which states that applicants should still allow up to ten weeks to obtain a passport and that preparations are now being made to meet demand.
When the strike begins on March 31 at Heathrow Terminal 5, the airport will probably have to relocate resources from other areas in order to accommodate the situation.
The airport claims that the pay proposal that is now being offered is reasonable, and that threatening to destroy people’s holidays that they have worked so hard to earn with a strike will not enhance the arrangement.
It was stated that employees at Heathrow are paid at least the London Living Wage, and if its 10% offer is accepted, the starting salary for a security officer would be £27,754, plus shift pay and allowances.
